How do you use quotation marks in French?

How do you use quotation marks in French?

Quotation marks in French are called “les guillemets” (masculine plural). In literary French, they are usually typed using this symbol: « » which is called “guillemets en chevron à la française” (source: wikipedia)…

Do French use single quotation marks?

Make a quotation…the French way While English typically uses either the double or the single apostrophe to make a quotation, French goes about it in an entirely different manner, using guillemets to reference a third party. Two angled brackets, guillemets, reference quotations or speech within a text.

Why are French quotation marks different?

Speaking of what goes on between words, one of the major differences between French and English punctuation has to do with spacing. The phrase entre guillemets literally means “between guillemets.” Guillemets are the French version of quotation marks, and they look like this: « ».

How do you use guillemets?

Guillemets are usually used only at the beginning and end of an entire conversation. Unlike in English, where any non-speech is found outside of the quotation marks, in French guillemets do not end when an incidental clause (he said, she smiled, etc.) is added.

How do you get French quotation marks on a Mac?

Try Option/Alt + 7 and Option/Alt + Shift + 7. If you don’t get the right marks, tell us what you do get. PS On a US keyboard, it should be Option + \ and Option + Shift + \.

Why do French have a space before punctuation?

With French punctuation, the rule is slightly different. …all require a space before and after the punctuation mark. This is because these marks are considered double punctuation marks, in that the symbols consist of two different parts. (This does not apply to Canadian French, though.)

How do you write double quotes in French?

The standard way is to use English double quotes (“…”) for quotes within a quote: « Comme je te l’ai dit une fois, je lui ai répété, Mark Twain n’a pas dit : “ L’honnêteté est la meilleure politique. ” Il a dit : “ L’honnêteté est la meilleure politique…

Do French use en dash?

The en dash (–) can replace the em dash in parenthetical expressions in English as in French, in which case a non-breaking space is set before each dash to get a better readability (and thus avoiding an unexpected newline).

How do you type guillemets on a French keyboard?

To type the french guillemets on-the-fly, use Alt+174 for « and Alt+175 for ».

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